Murder in the Mix Boxed Set 28-30: Cozy Mystery Addison Moore (the reading strategies book .txt) 📖

surgical tools lying out on small rolling carts. She makes a beeline for a wall full of drawers and pulls open number twenty-three.

“Hey? Twenty-three,” I say. “That happens to be my juror number.”

She winks my way. “I knew I liked you, Lottie Lemon.”

Noah steps up and shines a light down, exposing a large white body bag before unzipping it to reveal Florenza Canelli lying there with her eyes closed, so peaceful, so very beautiful, it truly does look as if she’s sleeping.

A horrific howling sound rips from Flo, and I press my hands over my ears to keep my skull from imploding.

“I’m sorry, Flo,” I say as she bows her face in her hands a moment and her body bucks as she weeps. “But on the bright side, you’ve found out the hard way there’s life after death.”

Flo sniffs hard. “It’s not that. They flattened my hair.”

A hard groan comes from me because I have more than an inkling that we’re moving heaven, earth, and a dead body just so that Florenza Canelli can be sent into eternity having a good hair day.

“That’s her,” Everett says as he reaches over and zips her up. “All right, sweetheart.” Everett gives the body bag a hard yank in his direction. “You’re coming with me.” He hoists her over his shoulder and we turn to leave just as a flash of light shines in our eyes and the three of us freeze solid.

“Drop the body and take off all your clothes,” a rather hoarse voice commands.

I lean forward and squint at those all too familiar black boots—a pair of my old snow boots to be exact.

“Carlotta? Is that you?” I stride forward and bat the flashlight out of her hand.

“What’d you go and do that for, Lot?” she says, putting her weapon of ocular destruction away. “We could have put on one heck of a show for Flo and her friends.”

“There’s not a friendly soul in this room, Carlotta,” I say, navigating her to the door. “And do you know where else they’re not so friendly? Prison. No more shining a spotlight on any of us. Don’t make another goofy move or we’re all going to suffer.”

“Nobody’s going to suffer, Lot. And don’t you worry. I’ll get those men dancing with their shirts off yet.”

We hurry back into the icy air, Noah locks up, and soon we’re back at Everett’s car.

The whites of Everett’s eyes flash next to me. “Carlotta, open the trunk.”

“How am I supposed to open the trunk, Sexy?”

“Carlotta,” Everett rumbles. “Tell me you took the keys when you left the car.”

Carlotta gives an audible gulp.

Flo groans, “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” She dives into the car and tries her hardest to extract the key, but alas it holds strong to the laws of physics. It seems Flo keeps learning this lesson the hard way.

“It’s no use,” I wail. “I’ve ruined all our lives for the sake of matching a dress to a casket.”

“You don’t mix silver and gold,” Flo roars back.

Noah reaches his hand down Carlotta’s blouse before sticking a hairpin into the keyhole of the trunk and soon it opens up with a cool yawn.

“See that, Lot?” Carlotta chuckles. “If you don’t give Foxy what he wants, he’s going to find it somewhere else. He just stole second base.”

“And you’re stealing my sanity,” I say as the entire lot of us hops back into the car and Everett speeds us across town and rolls this glorified hearse right into Noah’s garage.

Noah grabs a couple of shovels while Everett picks up Flo’s remains and we head around back with Flo’s glowing countenance leading the way—at least for Carlotta and me.

“Lottie, go in the house,” Noah says, unlocking the back door. “You too, Carlotta.”

“No way,” I tell him, wrapping my coat over me a little bit tighter. “I’m in this with both of you.”

Carlotta moans, “If she’s not leaving, I’m not leaving. Now get digging, boys. It’s just north of midnight.”

Everett lands the body bag over the snow and takes off his jacket and his shirt.

“Easy, Judge Baxter.” Flo shines her otherworldly light over the body bag as if she were holding a candlelight vigil for herself—makes sense when you think about it.

“What are you doing?” Noah growls the words out at him. “This isn’t the time to entertain Carlotta.”

“Entertain Carlotta?’ Everett shoots him a look as if he might be the next body in our midst. “Unlike you, I’m not looking to score with Sawyer.”

A dark chuckle strums from Carlotta. “Hear that, Lot? Sexy called me Sawyer.”

Flo leans in. “It’s just like high school. Hey, if we were in high school, I’d probably steal both of them from you, Lottie.”

I give a quick blink. “Good to know we’re all putting our lives on the line for a boyfriend stealer.”

Carlotta holds up a finger. “A dead boyfriend stealer.”

Flo ticks her head to the side. “A dead boyfriend stealer who once had good hair.”

Noah stops his digging a moment to glower over at Everett. “Are you done with the striptease, sweetheart? Or are you going to show us your panties, too?”

Both Flo and Carlotta start on some low level groveling in hopes to see those panties.

“I was burning up.” Everett shoots daggers at Noah. “It turns out, committing a felony makes me more than a little hot under the collar.” He clenches his fist, letting us know he’s not above a brawl right about now.

Noah and Everett get straight to digging, and before we know it, snow and fresh dirt alike are flying as they make a nice size dent in the ground just a few feet from Noah’s back porch.

Carlotta smacks me on the arm. “Take note, Lot. A good felony gets him hot and bothered.”

Flo nods. “It’s important to know what your man needs to get his engine revved.”

“Believe me”—my chest bucks with a silent laugh—“I don’t need to commit a felony to get that man’s engine where it needs to be.”

“All right,” Noah grunts as he rips off his jacket